Off The Beaten Track

As the summer season is fully upon us I thought I would share a little secret with you. If you’re looking for wild, magnificent, mountainous landscapes in Asturias you don’t have to confine yourself to the Picos de Europa, where, in August, queues can form on the most popular routes for both car and hiker. Equally, while you may never tire of the endless beaches for family entertainment there are other fun family days out to be had.

Redes Natural Park is a protected area in the heart of Asturias. It’s big, it’s beautiful and it’s never very busy. A healthy population of brown bears live in the wild here – a good marker of how unspoilt this habitat is. The hiking and biking opportunities are immense and you can immerse yourself in natural beauty and not see another soul all day. Even in peak holiday season.

Of course, if you happen to be travelling with kids serene tranquillity may be an ambition too far. Effective entertainment and controlled expenditure of energy is more like it. And this is where the Molino del Alba comes in.

This old watermill on the banks of the river Alba is located in Soto de Agues, at the start point of the Ruta del Alba. You can do this spectacular 14km round trip hike on an ancient miners’ trail, or as much of it as suits you and the ages of your party members, and then reward yourselves with a lunch of fresh trout on the shady, waterside terrace.

And the best part? You get to catch the trout yourselves. As well as a restaurant, the Molino del Alba operates a trout farm on the river and they will supply you with a rod and bait so that you can catch your own lunch, which they then prepare and cook for you. Kids love it and on any given day in holiday season there is usually an excitable gaggle of them leaping about as the trout jump out of the water and onto the fish hooks.